


Reach for the Sky

by Ivegotaheartandivegotasoul



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 08:18:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13267437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ivegotaheartandivegotasoul/pseuds/Ivegotaheartandivegotasoul
Summary: Niall's spending his summer working for the Space and Rocket Center.





	Reach for the Sky

Today Niall is assigned a group of noisy ten-year-olds from the next county over. They’re all dressed in the same matching royal blue t-shirts, the ones handed to them when they stepped inside the building, and they’ve got their names written big in sharpie on small rectangular name tags. From what he’s seen of them already they’re more enthusiastic than the group of twelve-year-olds he had yesterday, and for that he’s thankful. 

He starts by leading them to a shaded patch of grass outside, the same patch he chose yesterday, and the day before that and the day before that. He waits for a minute while they look around and loudly gawk at all the rockets and other various things they’ve got displayed outside (he’d done the same his first day at the center), before he urges them to settle down in a kind of misshapen circle. 

He clears his throat and smiles wide. “Good morning to you all! I’m Niall and I’ll be showing you around the center today. Before we begin, does anyone know anything about the center? It’s history? It’s purpose?”

The kids stare up at him blankly and he waits only a few seconds before he begins his spiel, before the silence has a chance to stretch out and out. 

He’d applied for summer positions at John F. Kennedy Space Center, Johnson Space Center, and Huntsville Space and Rocket Center as a way of putting his foot in the door so to speak. Huntsville was the only one who’d responded, and even though he would’ve preferred something at JFK or Johnson, he’d still been happy to pack his bags and make Huntsville his temporary home for the summer. 

He gives them all a general rundown of the early history of the town, “whose main focus used to be cotton,” before he moves on to the great Space Race. Every time he brings it up he distinctly remembers underlining that term three times in his notes weeks ago in one of the training seminars as if he didn’t already know all about it from a childhood full of watching Apollo 13 on his couch, and begging his dad to go take him to visit John Glenn’s hometown. 

Once the history has been established and some of Niall’s favorite space fun facts have been shared, they move onto the fun part. The center has several simulators. These are made to help the kids see what it’s like in space. 

At lunch they stop at the Mars Grill, the cafeteria in the main building. The kids pull out small ziplock bags of money and fill their trays with food. Harry and his group are already sitting at one of the large red tables. When he sees Niall, his face lights up and he waves. 

Once all the kids have paid, he leads them to Harry’s table and takes the empty seat beside him.

“Good morning,” Harry says, voice all slow and sweet. 

“It’s noon,” Niall replies flatly. 

“Well…regardless of that, I still hope you had a good morning.”

Today Harry’s got his brunette hair all carefully styled off his face, save for this one curl by his ear. Niall imagines leaning forward , reaching out and tucking it behind his ears. It takes a moment for Niall to realize Harry’s staring at him, still waiting for a response. He quickly swallows. “I did.”

“Good.”

Like him, Harry’s a college student. A theater major from the University of Alabama back home with his parents for the summer. He’s really good with kids, likes to make cringeworthy space related puns, and really likes the series Firefly. And that’s really the extent of Niall’s Harry knowledge. Yet he always looks forward to lunch with Harry.  

“You know,” Harry starts, eyeing the burger in Niall’s hand, “you really shouldn’t eat burgers every day.”

Niall looks him straight in the eye and takes a big bite. “I’m not going to let you shame me into buying a salad. No matter how hard you try. Especially since I know you frequent the dipping dots vending machine." 

"That was one time.”

“Three times.”

Harry’s cheeks turn pink and he spears a piece of lettuce and shoves it in his mouth, quietly mumbling “lies”. 

They both know Niall’s telling the truth. 

They make small talk for another few minutes before Harry gets up to move on to afternoon activities. Niall lifts his hand to wave him off, but Harry pauses. He chews on his bottom lip, his eyebrows furrowed. Oh no, Niall thinks. He said something wrong. Did something wrong. 

“We should hangout some time. Outside of work I mean.”

“I’m free tonight,” Niall says without hesitation. Harry immediately relaxes, his lips quirking up in a smile. 

“So am I. Where should we meet up? I’m assuming you don’t want to go to my parent’s place.”

“We can go to mine." 

"Cool. I’ll see you when our shift is over.”

“I’ve got three roommates. Two of them work night shifts, so they won’t be around, but we’ll just stick to my room if that’s okay.” Niall pushes his key into the lock and motions for Harry to follow him as he shoulders the door open.

“You can go ahead. My room’s the one with the poster on the door." 

Harry gives him a tiny salut and takes off down the hallway.

Niall goes to the kitchen and grabs a roll of paper towels and a few paper towels. 

He finds Harry spread out across his bedspread, his arms tucked behind his head. "This is a nice room you’ve got here.”

“Make some room will you. And most of the stuff’s not mine. I’m just subleasing.”

Harry sits up and pats the seat next to him. Niall takes it and hands him a plate. They eat their Wendy’s in silence. Harry’s eyes wander all over his room as he bites into his spicy chicken sandwich and reaches for a Niall’s fries like they’re his own. Niall wonders what he’s thinking. “What is yours?” Harry finally says, breaking the silence.

“The bedspread, the clothes, some of the posters.”

He smirks. “Are all the space posters yours?" 

Niall can feel the blood rushing to his face. "Uh…yeah they are.” He shoves a handful of fries in his mouth and chews slowly, counts the bites. 

“Don’t look so embarrassed. It’s not much of a secret. You work at a space center after all.”

“Yeah.”

“Do you want to work for NASA?" 

"I’d like to. Not sure if it’ll actually happen.”

“It will. You’re a hard worker,” Harry replies, voice all confident and matter of fact like he’s known Niall for more than a month.

Niall snorts. “How do you know? We only see each other at lunch.”

“I saw all the notes you took at seminar and I’ve seen how organized you are. It’s impressive.”

“Thanks.” Niall smoothes the edge of his comforter with the palm of his hand and then adjusts it.

“Tell me an interesting space fact. Something they didn’t teach us in seminar?”

“About what in particular?”

He shrugs. “Anything.”

Niall goes with the first thing to pop in his head. “Jupiter has the shortest day of all the planets. It’s roughly ten hours long.”

“Interesting,” is Harry’s reply, his ringed fingers (the second they had climbed into Harry’s car, Niall had watched as he pulled the rings out of the cup holder and slid them on) tapping against his chin like he’s deep in thought. “Don’t usually think about how long days last on other planets.”

“What about you? What are you going to do with your theater degree?”

“Well, I’m going to move to New York City, live in Central Park, and recite Shakespeare to passing pedestrians.”

“Is that right?” Niall says, trying to hide his smile. “You don’t strike me as a Shakespearean actor. You look more like the love interest in a rom com.”

“Ouch.” Harry presses a hand to his chest. “So what you’re saying is that I’m only good for my handsome face and my ability to wear cozy looking sweaters?”

“Noooo.” Niall feels a bit like a supernova. Like he might just explode.

“Wow. Here I spend all this time memorizing Shakespeare lines only to be passed over because I’m too beautiful.”

“Harry-”

Harry closes his eyes and in a booming voice starts proclaiming, “doubt thou the stars are fire, doubt that the sun doth move! Doubt-”

“Harry,” he tries again, suppressing his laughter with the back of his hand.

“I do make a pretty good Kate Winslet though.” Harry falls back against the pillows again, his arms stretched above his head. He fixes Niall with an intense stare. Niall bites at his pinky finger. “Niall, I want you to explore me like I’m a galaxy.”

“I’m going to kick you out.”

“Rude,” Harry chides, popping himself up on his hands. “I’m only demonstrating my acting abilities.”

“What is it about theater then? That draws you in?”

“I don’t know…I never have a good answer for it. I think it’s…um…really nice to be able to make people…feel things. Make them think about things. Nice to sort of forget about yourself and be someone else. What about you? Why space?”

“I’ve honestly never really sat down and thought about it. The ambitiousness of it I guess. The idea that there’s always something new to discover, new to explore." 

Harry nods and then suddenly squints. "Wait, does that say Neil deGrasse Tyson’s on the bottom of that poster?”

“Yeah.”

“No way! How did you manage that?”

“Met him at a convention. Was pretty fucking awesome.” It’s still one of his favorite memories.

“You’re so lucky.”

“What did you want to do? Watch Netflix?”

“Sure."

Niall gets up and turns on the lights. After they’ve settled down with the laptop balanced on Niall’s knee, selected a period drama Harry claims is really good, they fall silent. Niall feels Harry press closer as the film progresses. He sets his hand on top of Niall’s. Harry’s palm is all sweaty and when Niall looks over at him, Harry’s eyes are very firmly fixed on the screen. Niall just squeezes his hand reassuringly and keeps hold of it the entire movie. 

**Author's Note:**

> Drabble I posted on tumblr a while ago.


End file.
